Forecasting the future of nutrition
22 Dec 2020 | Lonza Capsules & Health Ingredients
General health with an emphasis on digestion is set to reach new heights over the coming years as new research emerges, according to Roel van de Put, Lonza Capsules and Health Ingredients’ business development manager. Beauty-from-within, mobility, mood health and immunity will also be major forces shaping the nutritional realm, he predicts.
This is Catherine Durrell from CNS Media.
I'm speaking with Rolf Van Deput, who has launched a capsule and Health's business development manager.
I'll dive right in today with my first question, which is, how is COVID-19 shaped the trajectory of both Lanza and the nutrition industry at large?
Hi, everyone.
Thanks for that, that first question.
Firstly, I think the, as with other companies, COVID has really had a big impact on our, on our company, on the way we work.
First of all, actually, When COVID hit us, we were just going through a transformation where we merged our various business units into our business units, CHNI capsules and health ingredients.
And if you look at the, at the what that resulted for us, basically that, that change has been fast tracked by COVID-19, we saw a very high demand for our hard capsules, mainly in the pharma, as as in the food supplement space.
And, besides that, we saw an an acceleration of the trends which were already ongoing.
So whether it was the clean label trend, or really that, that urge for people to, to focus on their health, the various health areas, innovation, that has really been fast tracked by, by COVID-19 for us.
Great.
And within that, have you seen any major regional variations?
And if you have, what might be a region a reason behind this?
Yes, so in regionally, so we basically work in the MEA with the strongest focus on, on, let's say, Western Europe and Eastern Europe.
In that sense, we haven't seen that many differences in the regions.
What we have seen, not necessarily linked to COVID is a real focus of, startups and M&A strategies.
So we've seen quite a few.
Of the larger FMCG companies going into an M&A strategy.
For example, we've seen Unilever, and Nestle Health Science and getting their way into nutrition.
So basically meaning that nutrition is now, embraced by the larger organizations as.
Next to that, we've seen a wave of, yeah, -funded, -equipped startups, which basically started with ritual in the United States.
Yeah, we're seeing a large movement there now, firstly in the UK, heights, with their multivitamins for brain health is a really good example.
And we're also working very closely with a couple of similar, like companies in different segments in Germany, France, Eastern Europe.
And if you look at the products, so what are consumers looking for, yeah, really a big search, specifically in the, the March to May period for immune health.
We still see a lot of demand for products around mobility, and people going out more and more, within the limitations of the, of the lockdowns in the various countries.
So we see, we really see that, that, that consumers are looking for, OK, how does this product help me perform better and stay mobile in that sense.
But to be honest, it is, it is quite general across Europe in the type of products we see.
Right.
And again, speaking quite generally, what are the main challenges that you tend to face, and, and how can they be overcome?
Yes, so for us, it's been really been a crazy year.
So we, we're in the middle of an SAP implementation.
We were in the middle of putting that, CHNI, the capsules and health ingredients business unit in place, while COVID struck us.
As you know, at Monzo, we do a lot of customer events, a lot of, trainings with customers, we do a lot of travel.
Yeah, we needed to start working remotely.
We embraced that very quickly, I think.
We quickly moved into doing like online webinars.
We kept participating in all these trade shows.
So I think on one hand, if you look at let's say our Personal and our employees, yeah, they've really had a rough, time.
And so they really need to adapt quickly to these new environments.
But also, yeah, the fun part, which traditionally was going out and meeting customers, engaging with new people, yeah, it has drastically changed and is now in a complete mode, in a different mode all online.
And luckily, everyone is safe and healthy and, and we're seeing good growth.
If you look at more of the business performance side, I think it's been a really good year from a performance side of things.
We've been really been struck by the increase in, demand, basically quite rapidly outpacing our capacity, in the beginning.
So both for our, hard capsules.
We have seen a big, big shift in demand, for let's say, products like a paracetamol, when people were still, you know, stocking up in, in their homes in the beginning, but that has been going on throughout the rest of the year.
And with more in our nutrition, business with our dosage form solutions or our leak caps and our duo caps, yeah, we've really seen, a significant increase in demand, like, we would expect with the COVID-19, with, with people being on furlough, people, companies and, and facing challenges, it seems that the nutrition industry has really, basically gotten another kickstart where they, Yeah, where everyone was looking for new products, they wanted to launch quickly.
And yeah, I briefly mentioned it before in another, in another interview, I think, yeah, what COVID has learned me personally is that as a company, whether it is in B2B or in B2C, it is important to have a good relationship with your suppliers, and it is very important to have a good R&D team so that when everything Changes when there are certain movements in the industry, you need to be agile, you need to be able to adapt.
And I think those resources, which typically are either internal when it's your staff or external when they are your partners, yeah, it's critical to have those, those on board.
A good example for us is our partnership with, with Launch Innovation, consulting firm out of the US.
We were planning to do a lot of almost full-day innovation workshops, on site with, with, with some of our key accounts.
Yeah, we rapidly changed that model into a, into an online version.
5-hour sessions are quite time-consuming for our clients, but really received and, and that has generated a lot of new ideas, new concepts, which we are now, developing to be commercialized in the next, the next few months.
Great, that sounds like you've got a lot of interesting things coming up.
And then, speaking more in the, in the long term, you know, standing at the, the start of 2021, what do you expect the nutrition industry might, you know, evolve into over the next decade, and, and what gaps do you see currently?
Yeah, no, it's, it's very interesting, as you know, within our business development team, we do have the tendency to look forward and to really partner with suppliers on the next generation products.
I've listed it out to be sure that I don't miss anything.
But we really see that, that there is a couple of segments which are, yeah, will be booming in the next couple of years, which is, I think first and foremost general health and then digestion, they're combining that so really that the need of probiotics that's becoming more and more popular, more science behind it.
People are concerned around their general health.
Secondly, beauty from within.
And we see a lot of new concepts, new ingredients focusing on beauty, very much on trend, a lot of demand for that, that sort of products.
And then probably not surprisingly, immune health, really on trend, a lot of consumers looking for products, looking for solutions, but also for new solutions.
Another segment, which we see a lot of interest in is the mobility segment.
So joint, bone, that combination.
So a lot of, ingredients like aged collagen, vitamin K2, D3.
Really making sure that let's say the healthy agrs or the, the silveraggers as we call them, yeah, who now go out on their electric bikes, go and play golf, they, even more than before, they need to stay mobile.
And then lastly is an segment, which is for me very interesting, that's the, what, probably a year ago, we would have called new tropics, but that segment, which has really quickly devolved into a sort of mood, sleep, relax.
E-gaming, e-sports, segment.
And then if you take all of that apart, so those segments, and if you then check, OK, what, what is the overarching principle for these segments?
So what is important for our consumers?
Yeah, we really see that they are, although the demand for food supplements is increasing, that there is a sense of pill fatigueness.
So we really see that high bioavailability, one a day servings, that's really key for consumers, easy to swallow products.
Science, not sure because it's because of COVID that people are constantly behind their, their devices, Googling and finding out what works, what doesn't work, but science, not necessarily health claims, but really, you know, what sort of research has been done on this ingredient, how does it work?
That's, that's very relevant.
Clean label has really accelerated, and that's something we will, see going on for the next couple of years as , more and more clean label, sustainability.
So it's all nice that you've got a vegetarian capsule, but how is it sourced?
How do you produce it?
Is it like a chemical process?
Is it synthetic, or is it all natural?
That's becoming more and more relevant?
Another big trend for the segments which we see is the dosage form, solutions.
As you know, we are, very much investing in new technologies and so for example, our duo gaps are very much on trend.
Giving a functional benefit together with an aesthetic point of view, which is differentiating for our consumers.
If you look at probably all of the new customers we have on board over the last 18 to 12 months, they're all selling through their social media channels.
So not only do the products need to be effective, they need to look attractive as.
And I think if we would have had this conversation 5 years ago, and I would have told you like, there will be a time where brands put their capsules or their tablets on an Instagram post, you would be like, oh, how, how would that, that look like?
And I think lastly, which we will see, Coming on for the next couple of years is really the focus on performance.
Also, something I discussed in a previous interview is the, the trend of Sports nutrition going mainstream.
I think that's something which we really see, which is, which is now completed, like proteins are a household product.
Everyone has a jar of protein.
Everyone understands that he needs a, needs a healthier product, needs some prebiotic fibers for his digestion and so forth and so forth, with that shift of more people working from home.
Yeah, I see, if I look at my Strava account, I see people going for runs every day, bike rides every day, a lot more than normal.
I see people, you know, when I have my conference call, and I only need to listen for 90%, I just go for a run, during that call so that I stay active.
So that whole Yeah, you know, that sort of when I do my activities versus when I do my work, that, that is blending a lot more.
And with that, I see that there is a lot more emphasis on performance.
So how can nutrition, more specifically supplements really help me perform better or recover faster.
So that's, that's in a nutshell, what we expect for the coming year, 5 to 10 years.
Great.
Thank you.
And then just speaking about Lanza capsules and health specifically, is there anything in particular that our listeners should be, should be looking out for that will be, coming in the pipeline soon?
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, and that's, it's, it's, it's very important that you ask this question as.
We have, obviously, a lot of listeners will be some of our customers and we'll be like, oh, that's all nice from Lonza that they are seeing so much growth, but yeah, they are very much behind in, in our supply chain.
Beginning of October, we announced an investment of 85 million Swiss francs in in our CHNI business.
So, not just investing in Lonza and new development of let's say, vaccines or medicines, but really specifically for our business units.
That will result in, a capacity increase of 30 billion capsules per year, that investment goes across the globe.
So around 8 sites globally, so varying from Japan to Europe to, North America.
So that really will drive us going forward.
So that really shows the confidence of Lonza in this business that they see that there is a lot of future in, in health and nutrition in capsules, and food supplements.
So, yeah, there is a lot more to come.
So both from a financial investment as , what I see in our pipeline, for the new concepts, which we are already developing for 2021.
Yeah, that looks really promising, and we're really looking forward to, to present to those to our customers in the coming months.
